The Taliban have handed four South Korean hostages to Afghan tribal elders and was to hand over the remaining three later on Thursday, a rebel negotiator said.
”We have handed four people — two male and two female — to tribal elders,” Qari Mohammad Bashir said.
They were handed over at an area called Janda, which is about 100km south of the town of Ghazni. ”Three others, all females, will be handed to them in another place on their way back to Ghazni,” Bashir said.
A tribal leader involved in negotiations to free the hostages confirmed that ”three or four” had been handed over to other elders and would be delivered to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
”They are driving towards us,” the elder, Haji Mohammad Zahir, said. He was with an ICRC convoy that had travelled down from Ghazni to collect the hostages.
Twelve other hostages were released in three separate groups on Wednesday after negotiations between the insurgents and South Korean negotiators.
The Taliban captured 23 South Korean hostages on July 19. They shot dead two of them, both male, and freed two women on August 13. — Sapa-AFP